


the one who holds my name

by litra



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Disabled Character, Future Fic, Gen, Podfic Welcome, Shindou Shusaku, Sign Language, Time Skips, the return of Sai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 13:55:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15341286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/litra/pseuds/litra
Summary: A boy comes to the institute and asks for an autograph.





	the one who holds my name

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies for any misspelling of names. It's been too long since I've been in the fandom.

Shindou Shusaku Sensei stepped out of the elevator with Waya 8-dan. He was a common sight in the Go institute, and had been for decades now. He was the Shusaku after all. He'd held the title longer then anyone else ever. Even the second Touya Mejin couldn't take it from him. 

So he was not at all surprised when a young fan, possibly an inse - definitely not out of grade school, held out a Kifu and a pen. Instead it was the boy's expression that caught his eye. The child looked like he was being forced to be there. His expression was bored and under the vale of politeness he was fidgeting. 

"I take it you would like an autograph?" Hikaru asked with a small smile. He'd seen young fans blush or babble when he asked that question. Sometimes they weren't sure how to address him and fell over their own tongues trying to correct themselves.

This kid just nodded and rolled his eyes, the kifu and pen still extended.

Waya chuckled under his breath and clapped Hikaru on the shoulder, "I'll see you at the seminar."

Hikaru nodded, finally taking the kifu as Waya departed. He turned, looking around for a place to write, and finally settled on stepping into the gift shop. There was a spare patch of counter that would do well enough. The girl behind the counter smiled and nodded to him. The shop was otherwise empty at the moment.

"Should I make it out to someone?" Hikaru asked. He had a feeling the boy was asking for a friend or possibly a girl, rather then for himself.

The boy lifted a hand and flicked his fingers to the side. Hikaru took that as a no. 

He looked down at the Kifu, glancing over it for a good place to sign his name. His signature was a lot neater then it had been once upon a time. He'd had so many years to practice... 

His eyes caught on a shape in the upper left, following the stones down the side as they bracketed the center. This was...

Hikaru had played thousands of games, hundreds of thousands, and seen twice that number of Kifu, but he knew this game. Sai had always praised him on his memory. God, Sai... He hadn't thought of Sai in so long. No that wasn't right, he thought of Sai, but it was a distant thing. He was an old man now, not the child who didn't know how to place a stone, or even the teenager who'd gone off in a pout when he'd thought his friend was gone. Sai was there every time he placed a stone, but not like this.

It was one of Sai's games, one he'd placed the stones for, that second game with Touya, where he'd been forced to show his strength.

How many people knew about this game, he wondered. The old men who had been there to watch it were all long gone. The girl who'd worked the counter, what had been her name? She might know of it but would she remember each move? Enough to record the Kifu? Touya would know it. He might have told others. Back then there had been so much between them, and later they had started to understand one another... No, there couldn't be that many people who remembered this game.

Hikaru carefully wrote his name at the top, where the recorder normally would rather then the spots for the players names. He didn't want to mar the record. 

There was a lump in his throat as his carefully refolded the paper and turned back to the boy. There was one way this child could have learned about that match... but no. Even if...

He cleared his throat, "What's your name?"  

The boy scrunched up his face, then his shoulders slumped and he raised his hands. He slowly and deliberately formed one shape after another. After the third Hikaru got it and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, I don't sign." He looked around, and found one of the notepads that the gift shop sold. He caught the girl's eye, and reached for his wallet. The girl rang him up and offered a pen, before turning away and pretending not to watch.

The boy's handwriting was neat and blocky when he held up the notepad for Hikaru to see. Hikaru imagined he'd done this a lot. His name was Yagami Taiga.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Hikaru started to say, but Yagami-kun was already drawing back the notebook. He frowned as he wrote something else.

_They got rid of the fish?_

Hikaru nodded, blinking away the start of tears. "They renovated, ten or fifteen years ago." The lump was back in his throat. How long had it been? 60 years? Or was it 61 now? He looked around the small shop. There was still no one else there, but maybe there was a warmth. Something behind Yagami-kun, a shadow too long to belong to the boy.

Hikaru took a breath, looking back at the child. "Do you play?"

He shrugged, and held up a hand to pinch the air. Just a little, Hikaru translated.

If Hikaru had been younger he would have dragged Yagami-kun into the free-play hall and sat him down for a game right then. Or maybe he would have said something about how the boy would soon learn, and elbow him knowingly. Or maybe would have insisted on asking him all the questions he'd wanted to ask his old teacher over the years. It was a strange reversal of the role he had grown into as the Shusaku. 

He wasn't young anymore. 

"I have a study group on every other Tuseday, if you'd like to learn."

Yagami-kun nodded slowly, actually seeming to consider it. His eyes flicked to one side, then brought his hand down from his mouth. That sign, Hikaru knew.

"You are welcome. Good luck." He lifted his fan in a farewell to both the boy and his shadow and turned for the door.

He had no doubt that he would see Yagami Taiga again.

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this story in my head for a while. The odd thing is that until I started writing it I didn't know the kid was going to use sign language. I'd always pictured him as being brash and loud like Hikaru, then I started writing and I realized he wasn't talking.   
> I know only a tiny bit of ASL and I have no idea how that translates to Japanese so I tried to keep things simple, but If I got anything wrong feel free to tell me.  
> I like the idea of Yagami being Mute or Deaf and no one really cares because it's all in his game.


End file.
